Fanning the Flames
by monopolyguy
Summary: Vanessa Altman's been working with Stark for the last 12 years as the lead analyst for Stark industries, when out of the blue Tony ships her off to SHIELD to help them with the Tesseract research. After about a year of research with doctor Selvig, the Tesseract gets stolen and Vanessa is assigned to work along side Dr. Banner to locate it again. Retelling of avengers Bruce/Oc
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! Well this is a story I've been wanting to write for a while I've been completely obsessed with the Avengers for the last couple of weeks i don't exactly know why I guess something clicked inside of me, like a bomb full of feels exploded or something and now it's consuming my entire life...honestly there should be some sort of rehab for people like us. Anyways, this is about a girl named Vanessa Altman, she was the lead analyst for Stark industries and has helped Tony with bits and pieces of his suit. He hired her when she was eighteen and let me tell you, she's really smart for her age. She's 30 now though so she's known Tony for 12 years. He's sort of like an older brother/father figure for her. That was until he had her shipped off to SHIELD to help them work with the Tesseract. She really misses Tony (and Pepper) and can't wait to see him again. But she's also curious as to why he had her go. You'll find out why. Oh yeah! And she's working along side Dr. Banner to help locate the Tesseract. So this is a retelling of the movie and Bruce/Oc. Hope you enjoy it! Plus don't be afraid to let me know if there's any spelling errors and stuff. And don't forget to review! And idk if you even care, but if you're totally into a bunch Avengers stuff and like to look through pics and such I'm more than happy to give you my tumblr! .com I'll let you read this now... enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1:**

"doctor the readings on this thing are through the roof!" I shouted, trying to get his attention. "Sir!"

"I know, I know, I'm working on it." he said. I walked up to the Tesseract and looked at it closely. Doctor Selvig came to look at what I was doing. "Don't get to close to it, who knows what'll happen." I didn't say anything. "Nes?"

"It looks like it's opening." I whispered.

"What?" He came closer and looked at it.

"Look! I'm not joking, it could be opening."

"But we weren't trying to open it-"

"Doors open from both sides Doctor." I said firmly. "I'm not saying it is, it only looks like it." I walked off back to the computer and looked at the energy readings of the Tesseract.

"Talk to me doctor!" I heard the director say as he came walking into the lab. I let them talk about the machine only because I needed to find out why it was behaving like this. I took my reading glasses off my nose and put them on my head. I rubbed my hands over my face. This was way too much for me to handle. I found myself thinking back to about a year ago when I was still working for Stark. Those days weren't nearly as stressful as these. No Tesseract exploding or anything. Yes, I used to work for Stark. Key word being used to. How did I end up here with SHIELD? Good question. You'd have to ask Stark that. I worked for him for twelve years. Literally, I mean the day I turned eighteen. And out of the blue I hear he's arranged for me to go help SHIELD with the research for the Tesseract. I'm not complaining, I mean I get paid way more here than I did back there but it wasn't the same. I know it sounds crazy, but I work better with an egotistical maniac complaining and messing with my equipment behind me. I smiled to myself, thinking back to then when I heard the Tesseract shoot something out. Everything went quiet. I ducked behind the desk and peered out of the side at what it was.

"Sir, put down the spear!" Fury called out. The man who emerged from the Tesseract started to attack. He killed several agents and injured even more. I saw him do something to Agent Barton and his eyes turned all light glowing blue, like the colour of the Tesseract. He then did this to a bunch of other agents, then to doctor Selvig. No. I thought. He was the only one who could help me with this job. Shit. Fury began to take out the Tesseract and place it in a case.

"Please don't. I still need that." the guy said.

"This doesn't need to get any messier." Fury spat.

"Of course it does, I've come to far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard." Loki? As in the brother of Thor?

"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury said.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

"You plan on stepping on us?" Fury asked.

"I'm planning a world made free." Loki stated.

"Free from what?"

"Freedom." he stated. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you except that you will know peace."

"Yeah you say peace, I kind of think the other thing..." Fury said.

"Sir Director Fury is stalling, he means to burry us." Barton announced. He looked like he was being controlled by Loki.

"He's right the portal is collapsing, we've got a few minutes until this gets critical." Selvig announced, also being controlled. Within a blink of an eye, Barton shot Fury in the arm and then the rest of them walked off with the Tesseract. I waited until they were gone before I ran to his aid.

"Director! Director are you okay?" I asked.

"I'll be fine, we've got to get out of here now!"

"They've got the Tesseract." I stated.

"Then we get it back." With that we ran off through the collapsing building to the helicopter on the roof.

"We're clear upstairs sir, we need to go." I heard Coulson on the radio.

"I've located agent Altman we're headed to the roof." Fury said into the radio. We got up to the roof and jumped into the helicopter and it immediately took off. We flew away from the sight and caught up with Loki's truck. Fury opened the door from the helicopter and began to shoot at it. Loki used his scepter to shoot out some sort of energy that hit the engine. As the copter started descending we jumped out of it and onto the ground. I could hear Fury shooting at the truck as it was driving away. I landed on my shoulder and gripped it tightly as I stood up.

"All right Altman?" he asked. I nodded my head. He pulled out his radio as Coulson spoke.

"Director, do you copy?" he asked.

"The Tesseract is with Loki. I have men down. You?" he asked.

"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." I could hear Agent Hill.

"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that case. Coulson, get back to base. This is a level 7. As of right now we are at war." the line went quiet.

"What do we do?" Coulson asked.

"Get to base. Call in agent Romanoff. I need you to come and get agent Altman. She's injured, and we need her assistance on this project."

"Roger that." Coulson said. And the line was dead. Fury turned to look at me. I had rubble all over my face and dirt on my clothes. I was gripping my shoulder tightly in so much pain.

"Nothing like asking first huh?" I asked. He just looked away, apparently it was too soon for jokes. I took a deep breath and within two minutes Coulson had the helicopter at our location. He helped me into it and took off.

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** Yes this is REALLY short, it's just the intro chapter, I'll have another one up soon, don't forget to review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**HAHA! Well well...well well well well... You're probably surprised I actually updated... BAM didn't see that one coming... (:T)**

**Disclaimer: I forgot to do this last chapter, I don't own anything...sadly...but I own Vanessa! And that's what counts...right? :D?**

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**Chapter 2:**

I just got out of the hospital wing in the Helicarrier and went to look for Coulson. He told me to come see him once I finished up in there. I found him on the bridge, on the phone. I walked up to him as he got off.

"Don't worry, I'll handle Stark, you take care of the big guy." he said and hung up. "How's the arm?" he asked.

"Better." I said, Coulson nodded. I had the pleasure of meeting him awhile back when he visited Stark industries. Him and agent Romanoff. It was nice to get to know him. He was one of the funniest guys I knew, other than Tony of course, even though he didn't seem the type. "So, you're headed to the tower..." I began. Coulson sighed.

"Altman you can't come with me." he stated.

"Why not? You know Stark would gladly come in if I was there to persuade him." Coulson thought about it for a second.

"No." he said sternly. I hung on his words for a moment and nodded.

"Phil we both know I'll find a way onto that plane. Might as well just let me." I said. He sighed and walked off. I, of course, followed him. "By the way, why am I here exactly?" I asked.

"Fury needs your help locating the Tesseract." he stated, as he quickly walked down the hall. I tried to keep up with him, as usual. Everyone around here was so busy it drove me crazy.

"Right... and he just thinks that I'll be able to do that?" I asked. Coulson didn't say anything. "Coulson!" I hit his arm. "Answer me! The gamma levels are too low for me to trace. I'll never be able to find it. And even if I could, and I'm not saying I can, it would take forever!"

"I wasn't the one who signed you up for the job Altman." he said.

"No. Tony was." I said, getting agitated.

"I know." Phil sighed again before speaking. "Fury is calling in a specialist to work with you. I'm sure the two of you can locate the thing no problem."

"An expert on gamma radiation...?" I asked.

"An astrophysicist." Phil stepped into the plane, and I followed before he held up his hand and stopped me.

"You're joking." I said. The door closed and before I knew it, he had taken off without me. I stood there for a few moments, staring at the plane, slowly growing smaller and smaller, until it was gone from sight. I let out a small scream and went back into the Helicarrier.

I wandered the corridors of the huge flying metal building until I found my room. It was small. No surprise there. SHIELD never gave the good rooms to the analysts. Even if you were the best at what you do. So I decided to get settled in at the lab...that was if I could find it. I wandered aimlessly in circles for a good half hour until I came across it.

"Wow." I said. It took my breath away. It wasn't that big, but I liked it. It was just the right size for me to do my work. There was a huge window at one end, showing the bottom of the Carrier. "I could get used to a view like this." I said. I turned around and saw, oh my god. I saw the equipment. I walked around the table and towards the computers. I rubbed my hand over top of one of them. "Look at you! Oh you beauty!" I tend to get over attached to my lab equipment. Sue me, I'm a total geek.

I spent the next hour, or it felt like an hour, it ended up being like twelve, playing with the gadgets and trying to figure out how to locate the Tesseract. I was interrupted by agent Romanoff coming into the lab.

"There you are." she said.

"Here I am." I said, without looking away from the computer screen.

"They're starting the face trace on the deck, Fury wants you up there." she said. I took off my reading glasses and put them on my head and rubbed my face. I seemed to do that a lot.

"Yeah, all right I'll be there just give me a few minutes." I said and she walked off. "Or a few hours..." I mumbled to myself. Before I knew it I felt the room slightly shake. Earthquake? I thought. I looked over at the huge window overlooking what used to be the ocean, was now the sky. "The sky? Oh great...heights..." I said to myself. Heights were not my strong suit. They scared the shit out of me. I went back to my computer and continued what I was doing earlier. I felt the occasional turbulence as the Helicarrier was still rising. I kept trying to ignore it, but it was so annoying

"And here's the lab, where you'll be working alongside one of our best analysts." I heard Agent Romanoff announce as she came into the room. Followed by someone new. And wow, was he a nice sight for sore eyes. "And here she is. Altman this is Doctor Bruce Banner." she introduced. I took off my glasses and put them onto my head and stood up.

"Hi it's nice to meet you." I said, shaking his hand.

"You're the lead analyst for this assignment?" he asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"Nothing I just didn't think-"

"That a girl could be so smart?" I asked. He smiled.

"I didn't say that."

"But you were thinking it weren't you?"

"I hate to break up this little party, but you're still needed upstairs for the face trace." Natasha said.

"Yes, sorry. I was busy. I'll be right up, let me just get Doctor Banner settled and I'll be right up." I said. With that she nodded and left the room. It was quiet for a moment before I walked around the table to where I was working earlier.

"I hope you didn't think I was sexist or anything. It's just, I haven't seen many women in the science game." he said, following me.

"Don't worry about it, I was just messing with you." I said. "So, Doctor Banner; the expert on gamma radiation." I began, as I leaned against the desk. He leaned on the window opposite me.

"You can call me Bruce." he said.

"Vanessa." I smiled. "Where'd they pull you from?" I asked. He let out a small chuckle.

"Calcutta." he said. "I was a doctor for a bunch of people there. What about you?"

"Well I was pulled out of a nice steady job by a egotistical maniac about a year ago. I was sent to help with the research on the Tesseract, until it misbehaved and sent that guy Loki through a portal." I said.

"And by egotistical maniac you mean?"

"Tony Stark." I stated. "Well I have to go upstairs. Just get started and make yourself comfortable I'll be back in a few minutes."

I left the lab and wandered the halls until I found the bridge. I saw Fury standing in the middle, looking out at everyone.

"Director." I stated as I came in.

"Ah, Altman there you are. How's the shoulder?" he asked.

"I can move it can't I." He smirked.

"I'd like you to meet Steve Rogers." he said as Someone came walking up beside him.

"Captain." I shook his hand.

"You're the analyst?" he asked.

"Why is everyone so surprised?" I asked.

"Follow me." Fury said. I followed him to where the face trace was and it took about five minutes, thank god. It was faster now that there was no line.

"Sir, we've got a 65% match for Loki." a man said as me and Fury walked up next to Coulson and Rogers. "Scratch that, 75%. He's not exactly hiding sir."

"Captain." Fury said, we all turned to him. "You're up."

I walked into the lab. I looked over at the window, it was getting really dark out, and I let out a yawn. I looked over at Bruce, he set up some sort of machine. I walked over to him and stood beside him as he continued to work, his reading glasses atop his nose. He looked so concentrated, it was adorable. I didn't just say that did I? Sure I'll admit, I thought he was attractive the moment he walked in, but I wouldn't go as far as to say he was adorable. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Hey." Ok. Scratch that, completely adorable. But it would never work. We'd obviously go our separate ways when all of this is over.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's a device I built that'll help us locate the Tesseract." he said as he walked around it.

"This is what you've been working on since I was gone?" I asked.

"Yeah why?"

"It's genius." I said. He smiled.

"Thanks." he said and went over to the computer. I continued to examine the device. "So you've been working for SHIELD for a year?"

"Officially yes." I said.

"How long did you work for Stark?" he asked.

"About twelve years." I said.

"So why'd you leave?" he asked.

"You know, I've been asking myself that for a long time." I muttered. "I didn't exactly have a choice. If I did I'd be back at the company, working on god knows what." I said. He didn't say anything. I assumed he was dropping the conversation right there. So I turned around and leaned against the table. "So you know what I don't get?"

"What's that?" he asked from the computer.

"Why they need two specialists." I said.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well this is clearly a one man job." I stated. "It doesn't seem weird to you that they have us both working this?" Bruce took off his glasses and rubbed his face. She couldn't help but smile a bit. She does that all the time.

"Well, I guess it's a little weird." he said, and went back to his work. "Hey." he said after several minutes. I looked up at him from the computer I walked over to earlier. "What do you think of genetic mutations?"

"Why?"

"Just curious."

"Not a whole awful lot, why?" I asked. He didn't answer. I could only assume that he was too tired to answer, It was, after all, almost eleven.

"I think we've got a trace on the Tesseract." I said as Bruce came up beside me at the computer.

"How strong is the signal?" he asked.

"It's weak. We might be able to boost it." I said. He walked over to the device and tried to adjust it. When a swarm of soldiers came walking by the lab window. Surrounded by them, was the man who came out of the portal. Loki. "That's him. That's the guy who came out of the portal." I said to Bruce. He took off his glasses and watched as Loki smiled at us. It made my skin crawl. "I'm going to go see what's going on out there." I said. He pulled on my hand and I looked up at him.

"I'll go with you." he said. We left the lab and found everyone in the control room huddled around the table.

"What's going on?" I asked Natasha.

"Stark, Thor and the Cap captured Loki. Fury's interrogating him now." she said as I took a seat next to her. Bruce just stood at the table and looked over at the tape we were watching.

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," Fury pushed a button and a door opened under the cell Loki was being held in. "thirty thousand feet straight down in a metal trap." he said and closed it. "Ant; boot." Loki laughed.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built I think for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." I looked over at Bruce, he was agitated and he looked at me.

"Oh I've heard. The beast makes play he's still a man." Loki said to the camera in his cell. "How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am I?" Fury began. "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate." He said. "And you might not be glad that you did."

"It burns you to have come so close." Loki smiled. "To have the Tesseract, to have power; unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded of what real power is." Fury smirked.

"Well let me know if real power wants a magazine or something." Fury said and left the room. The screen went blank.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce cut the silence.

"He's a monster." I whispered.

"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Rogers asked.

"He has an army. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return I suspect for the Tesseract." Thor said.

"An army? From outer space?" Rogers asked.

"So he's building another portal?" Me and Bruce said at the same time. I looked over at him and smiled. "That's what they need Erik Selvig for." I said.

"Selvig? How do you know him?" Thor asked.

"He's an astrophysicist." I said.

"He's a friend." Thor replied.

"Loki has him over some kind of spell. Along with one of ours."Natasha said.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Rogers said.

"I don't think Loki is who we should be focussing on. I mean, you can smell crazy on that guy." I said as I stood up next to Bruce.

"Have care on how you speak tiny girl. Loki is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"You do know he's killed over eighty people in two days." I said to the guy.

"He is adopted." Thor replied looking away. I smiled slightly. Dudes got a point there.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asked to no one in particular.

"It's a-" I was cut off.

"It's a stabilizing agent!" I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Tony walking into the room with Coulson beside him. "Means the portal won't collapse on its self like at SHIELD." I watched in disbelief as he came striding into the room. Not even looking at me and walked past Thor. "No hard feelings you got a mean swing." He walked up to the control panel and looked over everything. "Also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long as Loki wants. That man is playing Galaga!" He announced, pointing to a man in the corner. "Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." He looked between the two monitors on either side of them with a hand over his eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Hill said.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony replied. "The rest of the raw materials agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick start the cube." he said as he walked up to us.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.

"Last night. The packet. Selvig's notes. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked.

"He'd have to heat the cube to one hundred and twenty Kelvin just to break through the barrier." Bruce said.

"Unless he found out how to stabilize the quantum effect." Tony said, walking up to Bruce.

"Well if he could do that then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." I said. Tony turned to me and smiled.

"finally. See! Do you know how good it is to hear someone speak English?" Tony said.

"Is that what that was?" Rogers asked. I didn't even look away from Tony.

"How've you been Nessy?" Tony asked. He went in for a hug and I just crossed my arms and decided to go back to the lab.

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** I hope you liked it, don't forget to review! I love reviews, I mean who doesn't right?**


	3. Chapter 3

**So I probably won't end up updating until summer break, so I hope this chapter is enough for you! Enjoy and don't forget to review!**

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**Chapter 3:**

When I got back to the lab I stood there for a few moments trying to wrap my head around all of this. I walked away from my boss. Or my former boss. I don't know, am I still working for the guy? Did he just give me up? Is that why I'm here at SHIELD? I tried to ignore all of these ideas that popped up in my brain and focused on the project at hand. Finding the Tesseract. That is, until Tony and Bruce came in. I turned around at the sound of Tony laughing as he came in. It seemed that the two of them were getting together quite well. I saw Bruce holding the scepter and place it on the table across from me.

"So... This is a pretty great hook up you guys got going on here." Tony said. I looked over at him. He was eyeing the room with a content look on his face. How could he be so happy at a time like this. No one said anything else. It was quiet for a while as Bruce and I began the work on the Scepter. I took off my glasses and leaned in closer to it.

"I thought we were supposed to be locating the Tesseract." I said.

"We are. But this has incredible gamma readings. It's through the roof." Bruce said.

"It's going to take weeks to locate this thing."

"Not after my decryption software finishes hacking into SHIELD's system." Tony said, strolling over.

"you've got JARVIS hacking into the system?" I asked.

"Yeah, he's been doing it ever since we left the bridge." I scoffed. "See what is that?"

"What's what?"

"That." he said, pointing to me. "You've been walking around all pissy since I came in here."

"I'm not being pissy!" I said and walked away from him.

"Then why do you keep walking away from me when I start to talk to you?" he asked as he followed me.

"Tony leave me alone." I said starting to get annoyed.

"Tell me what's up."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Nessy-"

"Stop calling me that!" I shouted. It was quiet for a moment before Bruce spoke.

"Whoa, is everything okay?" Bruce asked us.

"Yes." I said.

"No." Tony said at the same time. I looked at Tony and he looked back at me.

"All right..." he said as we were both still quiet. "I think I'll head out and get some dinner. You want anything?" he asked.

"No I'm-" Me and Tony said at the same time.

"Okay, well." He quickly walked out of the room, leaving me and Tony to talk. I heard the door close behind him but I never looked away from Tony. He didn't look angry, he looked confused.

"So?" He shrugged his shoulders. I scoffed again and walked past him, bumping his shoulder and going back over to the scepter. "That's it? You're not going to tell me what's up?"

"What's the point?" I almost yelled. "You wouldn't care." I mumbled that last part, what I wasn't planning on was him hearing it.

"Of course I care. You're one of my best friends."

"Best friends don't ship each other off to some random job without even talking about it." I turned around and crossed my arms.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Is that what you're upset about?" He said as he put his hands in his pockets. "Didn't think you were one to hold a grudge Nes." I raised an eyebrow. "All right all right, you want answers I get it. I don't blame you. You deserve them." Finally. "First of all, I didn't ship you off to SHIELD."

"Really." I looked around. "Then why am I here?"

"You really want to know?"

"Tony!" I said sternly.

"You deserved better." That was the last thing I thought I'd hear him say.

"What?"

"You're an amazing analyst Nes. And I guess I felt bad for keeping you cooped up in that little office for so long." he began. "Then SHIELD called asking for you to come in and I told them yes."

"Without even asking."

"It's better than the company that's for sure."

"Did you ever think about what I wanted?" I asked. Tony didn't say anything. "Tony I've worked for you for how long?"

"Twelve years."

"That's right. Twelve years. Twelve years I'll never get back." He gave me a look. I laughed. "And even if I could go back in time and change that, I wouldn't." I said. "Stark Industries is where I want to be." I said seriously. Tony looked at me for a moment, I couldn't tell but it seemed like he was contemplating something over in his head.

"Well if you still want the job, it's yours."

"Really?" I asked. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." he smirked. "You're right. I should've asked you first." He walked around me and looked at the scepter. He picked up a small pointy stick and examined it before he poked me.

"Ow!" he laughed and played with the stick a little more before I got back to work on the scepter.

After about ten minutes Bruce finally came back to the lab. He saw me and Tony working away on the scepter.

"It seems quiet in here." He stated as he walked up to us. Tony was looking over my shoulder like he used to do back at the company. "Is that a good thing?"

"Yeah, well, that's because she's in the zone. And when she's in the zone it's best if no one talks."

"Tony. Stop talking." I said, not looking away from the scepter.

"Sorry." He said. He reached into his little bag of blueberries and ate one before walking over to Bruce. "You know you should come by Stark tower sometime. First ten floors all R and D. You'd love it it's candy land."

"Thanks but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke-" He stopped and looked over at me.

"What, Harlem?" I asked.

"You knew?" he asked.

"What that you get green when you're angry? Of course. I know all about the avengers. I read up a few things before this all started." Bruce looked kind of embarrassed. I guess he kind of hoped that I didn't know. "Bruce it doesn't matter anyway. It's not like it changes anything. And besides I'm not even slightly worried that you'll lose it." I said reassuring him

"Thanks." he kind of smiled. "Ow!" He shouted.

"Unless something like that were to happen. Tony!" Tony put his hands up like he was surrendering. I shot him a look.

"Hey! Are you nuts!" The voice of the captain came strolling into the lab.

"Debatable. You really have got a lid on it don't you? What's your secret, mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Tony asked, which made me laugh a bit.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Rogers asked.

"Funny things are." Tony answered.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." he said. "No offense." he said to Bruce.

"It's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." he said.

"You're tiptoeing big man. You need to strut." Tony said as he ate another blueberry.

"And you need to focus on the problem."

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in, why now? Why not before? Why does he have Nes here working on the cube when she's not a gamma radiation expert?"

"Hey!" I said offended. He threw me a blueberry and I caught it with my mouth. "Forgiven."

"I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." Tony said.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Rogers asked.

"Captain he's a spy. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging them too isn't it?" Tony said, motioning towards me and Bruce. I just shrugged.

"I-I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Doctor?" Rogers asked.

"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." Bruce began.

"I heard it." Rogers said.

"Well I think that was meant for you." he pointed at Tony. Tony gave him a blueberry. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower it was still all over the news."

"The Stark tower? That big ugly-" Rogers paused as me and Tony looked at him annoyed. "Building in New York."

"I can't wait to step foot in there when this is all over." I mumbled.

"It's built off of a self sustaining energy source. That thing'll run its self for a year?" Bruce said.

"It's just a prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at." Tony said. Sometimes he's just the most modest person, I scoffed.

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? Why Vanessa instead?" Bruce asked. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once JARVIS finishes hacking into SHIELD's secure files." Tony said. "In a few hours I'll know every secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide."

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Rogers asked.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?"Tony asked.

"Not awesome." I stated.

"Thank you." He pointed at me.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man that is trying to start a war. And if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them." he said.

"Following's not really my style." Tony said as he finished the blueberries.

"And you're all about style aren't you?" Rogers asked.

"Of all the people in this room which one's a) wearing a spangley outfit and b)not a fuse?" Tony asked.

"Steve. Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Bruce asked.

"Jut find the cube." he said as he walked out of the room. Once he was gone I let out a breath.

"That guy needs to learn how to let loose." I said.

"Yeah tell me about it." Tony said as he walked off towards a computer. I let out a yawn as I started to examine the scepter again for what felt like the millionth time tonight. What I didn't notice was Bruce watching me from across the table.

"Tired?" he asked as he looked back at the computer. I smiled.

"Just a little bit. I haven't really had much time to sleep." I said.

"Why don't you head to bed." he said.

"No I can't do that. It's not fair to you." I said.

"It'll be fine. Besides, Tony's here." he said.

"Which is it isn't fair to you." he laughed a bit before coming around the table and pulling me off the chair.

"Go to bed." he said from behind me. God, I could feel his breath at the back of my neck as he spoke. It sent a chill down my spine I hoped he didn't notice. I turned around.

"You sure?" he nodded. "All right." I gave him a quick kiss on his cheek before I walked away. "Good night Tony!" I said.

"Night Nes." he spoke.

"Good night Bruce." I said from the door.

"Good night." With that I left the room, leaving him and Tony alone. Bruce heard a snicker from behind him and turned around. "What?" he asked.

"You and Nessy?" he asked. Bruce's face instantly flushed.

"No- we're not- I mean she's-" he rambled. Tony laughed.

"It's cool big guy." Tony said walking around him.

"I hardly know her." he said.

"Well you seem pretty friendly." Tony said. All of this seemed slightly amusing to him.

"I don't know, I don't think she'd be into big green messes." Bruce said, trying to get back to work, with only her on his mind.

"Well some chicks dig that kind of thing." Tony said.

* * *

** Sorry if this chapter is a little shorter than the other. I'm really busy with father's day and I hardly had any time to write this weekend, please leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay okay I lied, I wasn't planning on updating until summer vacation came around but some of my plans cancelled and I had some time to write this so I guess here's a bonus, you're welcome?**

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

I woke up to my phone buzzing on the table beside me. I practically crawled my way out of bed and over to it to check it. I got a text from Tony to come straight to the lab.

"You've got to be kidding me." I groaned out. So I got up and headed to the bathroom to get ready. After about ten minutes I headed to the lab only to find Bruce in there. I came strolling in, rolling up my sleeves and tying up my hair. "Bruce?" I caught his attention. He was sitting on a stool in front of the huge window. He looked up at me and took off his glasses.

"Hey, how'd you sleep?" He smiled. I walked over to him and sat down beside him.

"I'm not as tired, but I could be better." I yawned. "Where's Tony?" I asked.

"He went to go get some breakfast. Or at least that's what he told me. I think he went to go find more blueberries to throw at me." he said. I laughed a bit.

"That's Tony for you." I said as I got up and walked around the table, helping him with some work. It was quiet for a moment before Bruce started to talk again.

"So is everything good between you two?" he asked.

"Me and Tony? Yeah, we talked it out."

"Are you two usually that close?" he asked. I looked up at him and smiled.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I don't know, like have the two of you ever..." His face was going as red as a tomato.

"No. Me and Tony have never dated if that's what you mean. He's one of my best friends." I said. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh nothing, I was just wondering." he said.

"After this is all over I'm going back with him to the Tower." I said.

"Well I might swing on by then." I smiled to myself.

"I'd like that." I said, before realizing what I said, my eyes widened and I looked back down at the scepter. "I-I mean I'm sure Tony'd love you checking out the lab."

"Yes Tony would!" I heard him walk into the room. I turned my head around and saw Tony strolling in with a tray of food.

"That better be for me." I said excited.

"Calm down Nessy, I got you something too." He gave me a bowl of oatmeal and I thanked him. "You're just in time, JARVIS just finished hacking into SHIELD's data base." He said as he sat up on the table. I took a seat next to him and started eating my oatmeal. I saw Tony open another bag of blueberries. I reached in and took a few. "Hey!"

"Oh calm down." I said as I put them on my oatmeal. I passed one to Bruce as he came around the table.

We only got a few peaceful moments of looking through the data base before Fury came rushing into the lab.

"What're you doing Mister Stark?" He asked.

"Well took them long enough to notice." I muttered.

"Um, I've kind of been wondering the same thing about you." Tony said.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are. The models locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we hit a hit we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce said.

"I swear you get more work done when I'm not here." I joked.

"Yeah and then we'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss. What is Phase 2?" Tony asked. A large gun was dropped onto the table across from me and we all looked over. Rogers came in and put it there.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons." he said. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little too slow for me."

"Rogers we gathered everything related to the Tesseract this does not need to-"

"I'm sorry Nick!" tony interrupted him. "Were you lying?" I moved the monitor so that they could all see what SHIELD was planning on doing. He looked over at me. "Did you know about this?" he asked me.

"What? No of course not. " I said. I really didn't.

"I was wrong Director, the world hasn't changed a bit." Rogers said.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked as Natasha and Thor came into the lab.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this situation doctor?" she asked.

"Oh come one Bruce's got it together." I said.

"She's right, I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." he said, I kind of smiled at that remark.

"Loki's manipulating you." Natasha said.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce asked.

"You didn't come here because I batted my eyelashes at you."

"Yes and I'm not leaving because you suddenly become a little twitchy." he said. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." Fury paused for a moment before answering.

"Because of him." He pointed at Thor.

"Me?" He asked, pointing at himself.

"What does Shakespeare here have to do with anything?" I crossed my arms.

"Shakespeare, nice." Tony muttered.

"Thanks." I said quickly.

"Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we alone, but we are hopelessly-" he turned to the Captain, "Hilariously out gunned." he corrected himself.

"My people were nothing but peace with your planet."

"But you're not the only people out there are you?" Fury asked. "And you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched. They can't be controlled."

"Like you control the cube?" Rogers asked.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drove Loki to it. And his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor explained.

"A higher form?" Rogers asked.

"You forced our hand, we had to come up with some-"

"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything down." Tony said sarcastically.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune Stark."

"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck deep in-" Rogers began.

"Wait wait wait, hold on. How is this about me?" Tony cut him off.

"Oh I'm sorry. Isn't everything?" Rogers asked.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor remarked.

"Excuse me! Do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked.

"Are you boys really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threats." Natasha interjected. Everyone was beginning to fight and I kind of just stood there next to Bruce as they did.

"Captain America is on a threat warrant?" he asked.

"We all are." she said.

"You speak of control and yet you cause chaos." Thor said above everyone else.

"This is MO isn't it? I mean what are we, a team? No no no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Bruce said.

"You need to step away." Fury said.

"He's fine." I said.

"Yeah, why shouldn't the guy let off some steam?" Tony asked.

"You know damn well why, back off." Rogers said.

"Oh I'm kind of starting to want you to make me." Tony said.

"Big man in a suit of armor." Rogers said. "Take that off and what are you?"

"Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist." he said, I smiled, god he was so full of himself.

"I know guys with none of that and worth ten of you." he said. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." Tony looked at me and back at Rogers. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

I think I'd just cut the wire." Tony replied. Rogers smirked.

"Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you?" Tony asked. "You're laboratory experiment Rogers, everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Okay, I think this is getting a little too intense. Why don't we pick up on this session another time okay you two?" I said as I came between them. They stood there looking at each other before Rogers spoke.

"Put on the suit." he said. "Let's go a few rounds." Thor began to laugh.

"You people are so petty. And tiny." Thor said.

"Oh yeah, this is a team!" Bruce said giving up.

"Agent Romanoff would you please escort doctor Banner back to his-" Fury was cut off again.

"Where? You're renting my room." he said, referring to the cell that Loki was being held in.

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me but you can't I know I tried." he said. I looked over at him and he looked at me. "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spat it out." he said, and everyone was looking at him. "So I moved on and focussed on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" he asked getting angry. I saw Fury reach for his gun.

"Doctor Banner." Rogers said. It was at that moment I noticed Bruce holding the scepter in his hand. "Put down the scepter."

At that moment I heard the computer go off on the other side of the lab.

"Sorry kids, I guess you don't get to see my party trick after all." he said as he walked over to the computer.

"You've located the Tesseract!" Thor said. Before I knew it another argument was starting up so I walked over to Bruce to see what was going on.

"So how is it?" I asked.

"I'm opening up the results now-"

"No I meant you." I clarified. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"There wasn't much to tell." he said.

"You still should've told me. We could always try and work on this." I said. I saw a smile crawl up the side of his mouth as he turned back to the computer. "Promise to tell me when it's too much to handle okay?"

"Promise." he opened up the file and our eyes went wide. "Oh my god-" Was all he said before an explosion went off.

* * *

**So... short chapter, I know, I told you I only had some extra time to post today. I'll hopefully update again within the next week. Don't forget to review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

Everything happened at once. People were flown in all directions of the room because of the explosion. I gripped my arm that I had injured in the crash with Fury. I landed on it across the room. I opened my eyes and tried to look past all the smoke. I could feel myself coughing and groaning from the pain, but my ears were struggling to hear anything because of the loud explosion.

"Nes?" I heard faintly. I continued to cough and cradle my arm. "You're going to be all right just come on get up." I could feel Tony's hands on my shoulders, trying to get me up.

"Ow!" I shouted.

"That looks bad." he simply stated.

"Yeah no shit Tony!" I let out a whimper as I fixed my arm to make it a bit more comfortable. Before I knew it Roger's was by our side and looked at Tony.

"Put on the suit." he said as he helped Tony help me out of the broken room.

'Wait wait, we can't leave everyone in there! What about Bruce? Something could snap he might need us-"

"Bruce I'm sure will be fine right now we need to get you looked at." Tony assured her as he slung my arm around his neck and Steve did the same thing with my other and they helped me get to the infirmary.

Once I got there Tony sat me down on one of the many beds and headed back towards the door.

"What're you doing? You can't just leave me here!" I complained.

"Go on ahead I'll catch up, meet me at engine three." he said to Rogers. Steve nodded and left the room. Tony looked back to me.

"Well?" I asked, still holding my arm.

"Look, just stay here until I come and get you kay?" he said.

"Come on this is stupid I'm not even safe-"

"You're safe here I promise just-" He looked like he was going to have a panic attack. "Promise me you'll wait until I come back to do something stupid."

"Hey-"

"Vanessa?" he said. I looked up into his eyes and could tell he was being completely serious. He never calls me that.

"Okay; I promise." I whispered, still annoyed that I couldn't be of much help. Tony took one last look at me and headed for the door.

"Just; stay." he ordered as he left.

"I'm not a dog!" I shouted after him.

After a few minutes of sitting there being absolutely helpless in the infirmary I got up and started pacing around the room. Seconds after I got up I heard a distant roar coming from down below the ship.

"Oh my god." felt tear well up in my eyes. Bruce was on the rampage, Barton's been compromised, an engine's been shot out. Then I heard an announcement.

"Perimeter breech, hostiles are in S.H.I.E.L.D." The room slowly seemed like it was leaning to the left and I heard another announcement. "The Hulk and Thor on levels two and Three." And another "Engine one is now in shut down." I couldn't stay in here, I had to get out. I opened the door to the infirmary and peeked my head outside. It was dead silent. No one was on this side of the Helicarrier. I left the room slowly and quickly walked down the empty corridor, gripping my arm.

I ended up running to where they were keeping Loki. For some reason I thought that Fury might've locked Bruce in his cell if he unleashed the Hulk. When I got there I saw Loki stepping out of the cell with no one else in sight.

"Loki!" I shouted, running after him. I tackled him onto the ground and pinned him there. Then he smiled and disappeared. My face went white and I got up and looked around. Loki was standing right behind me beside the control panel.

"So many times before I have used that, yet no one seems to catch on." he said. I didn't say anything. It was at this point I reached into the thoughts in the back of my head where I was wondering why I had even come in here. I would want nothing more right now then to be back in the infirmary. "Timid?" He asked as he was still smiling. "Why shouldn't you be?" he taunted.

"I'm not." I stated quickly, backing up against the railing. He followed, every step I took back, he'd take forward.

"Then why do I sense your fear of me?" He raised his scepter to me and held it in front of my chest.

"What're you-" before I knew it I let out a quick scream and fell to the floor. "What," I panted, "what did you do to me?" I asked. I started to sweat. He smiled down at me as I tried to get up.

"It's getting hot in here isn't it?" he asked. I held onto the railing beside me as I continued to struggle to get up.

"I- I feel like I- I'm burning up-"

"That because you are." he said in a hushed tone. He kneeled down to where I was on the floor and looked at me. "And you will continue to burn for as long as you shall live." Was all I heard before I passed out.

* * *

"Agent Altman." I heard my name in the distance. "Agent, open your eyes." I did as I was told and opened them. Everything blinded me, the light of the room so vibrant, unlike the darkness I was previously engulfed in.

"Director?" I asked, making out his face.

"Agent Altman is still with us, requesting a medical team on location." he said into his earpiece. I sat up against the railing.

"What happened?" I asked as I looked over at where Loki's cell was earlier, now there was nothing. "How long was I out?"

"A few minutes. Altman, we will need to debrief you on what's happened." he said. "Right now we need to take a better look at that arm. He reached out to it and took it in his hands, before dropping it instantly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's burning hot." he said as he placed the back of his hand on my forehead. "You're burning up." He touched his ear, "I need that medical team here ASAP." he said to his earpiece. "Altman I need you to stay focussed on me."

"What-" I swallowed, "What's wrong with me?" I asked.

"Your body temperature has reached three hundred degrees ferinheight. You should be dead." he said. It didn't take long for the medical team to arrive. By the time they did though, I could feel the sweat coming down the sides of my face. I was given a dozen ice packs and pain killers. they also bandaged up my arm to keep me from bumping it. I sat in the room where Loki and I were a few minutes ago and stared at the space where the cell had been. Director Fury had just finished telling me about what had happened. Bruce being knocked out of the sky, Thor being trapped in the cell and thrown out, Barton being knocked unconscious and that he was being held in a room, being watched by agent Romanoff, and the death of Phil. I sat there; watching the space, just hoping that all of this would end up being one long bad dream, but I didn't feel like I was going to wake up any time soon.

The circular room was dead silent. The only sound coming from the vibrations of the Helicarrier. I heard him approach, I mean it's not like I could miss him walking into a room, he was arrogant and so was his walk. He took a seat beside me and for a few moments it was quiet. I took in a long deep breath and let it out.

"How you holding up?" he asked. I looked over at him, I could see he was upset, but not as upset as I was.

"How am I holding up?" I repeated his question. "I almost died Tony." I looked away from him.

"Yeah, that wouldn't have happened if you had just listened to me." he muttered. I felt a tear finally leave my eyes and travel down my face. He sighed, "okay let me start again."

"Bruce let go." I said suddenly, I didn't exactly know where that came from. "He let the other guy come through and you told me he'd be okay."

"We don't know where he is. For all we know he could be just fine." Tony assured me.

"Still." I said, wiping the tear. It was quiet again between us. "Loki did something to me." I looked down into my lap and started playing with my fingers, as I usually did when I didn't know what to say. "He pointed his scepter at me like he did to Barton and Selvig back at S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. But it wasn't the same. I didn't follow any of his orders."

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know, he just pointed it at my chest, and then I felt strange; I felt like I was on fire." I said to him.

"I'm sorry Nes, I didn't mean for this to happen. I should've never have left you alone in the infirmary."

"What? Tony this isn't your fault, I'm sure it would've happened one way or another." I got up and almost fell back down.

"Hey hey easy. You have a fever of three hundred you might wanna take it easy for a while." Tony said, helping me up.

"I have no time to take it easy. I need to get to the lab, I need to find out what he did to me." I said, trying to push myself off of him and towards the blown in door.

"Hey, you have the rest of your life to figure that out." he said. "And besides you're not going to do it alone." I looked at him confused. "It's because of me this happened and I wanna make it right. I'm gonna find out what exactly that son of a bitch did to you and we're gonna fix it kay?" I didn't have the strength to argue with him, so I just let him guide me in the direction of my room. After he left I fell onto the bed and instantly fell asleep.

* * *

**Don't forget to review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay well I should've added this into the description or something, but this story will be going into the events of Iron Man 3 as well.**

* * *

_**After the fight in New York...**_

I was woken by a loud knock on my door. I sat up right in bed and looked down at where I was just sleeping, it was all covered in ash. Whatever this was, it was bizarre. I got up and wobbled towards the door as the person kept on knocking.

"I'm coming!" I shouted. I finally got to the door and pulled it open, wiping off some sweat from my forehead. "Director." I greeted.  
"Altman; is everything under control here?" he asked, eyeing the sweat all over me.  
"This is as controlled as it is going to get sir." I told him. "What is it?"  
"There's an aircraft waiting for you at the loading bay, it's ready to take you to the tower." he said.  
"Why am I going there?" I asked.  
"Stark is there, along with Doctor Banner. He mentioned something about you heading there when this all blew over."  
"Yes, when this all blew over. Sir we're still at war."  
"No agent." he said and let out a breath. "We've won." he said.  
"Really?" I asked, for some reason I felt calm, like it was all going to be okay, but then I remembered what was wrong with me. "What about Loki?"  
"He's gone back to Asgard, along with Thor."  
"I-Is everyone okay?" I asked.  
"Everyone is fine. Now I suggest we get you to the tower. Stark is waiting for you." he said.  
"Yes sir, I'll be there in five minutes." I said. With that, he walked away and I got changed. It was way too hot to wear anything really so I threw on my short sweat pants and a tank top. I grabbed my bag and headed for the loading bay. I got into the aircraft and it took off. I was on my way to New York.

* * *

I got to the tower, and the aircraft landed on the helicopter pad. I got out and a man carried my bag for me as we entered the tower and took the elevator up to where Tony was. I had an icepack with me, but it didn't seem to do much. I leaned against the wall in the elevator and put it up to my head.  
"Forgive me, I hardly think it's my business," the guy started to talk, "but you don't look so good." he said. I chuckled a bit.  
"Of course I don't." I said.  
"What happened?"  
"I don't know yet." I said, before the doors opened. I stepped out of the elevator and the guy handed me my bag, and that was the last I saw of him. When I turned around I was attacked by Pepper giving me a huge hug.  
"Are you all right?" She asked. As she wrapped her hands around me. "Ow!" she pulled back. "Vanessa, you don't look so good." she said.  
"I-I'm not." I said. "Did I burn you?" I asked.  
"No. Well yeah but I'm okay, you're skin's as hot as fire."  
"So I've been told before, where's Tony, I need to talk to him." I said.  
"Here!" Tony said from the couch. I quirked an eyebrow at him.  
"You're sitting on the couch? What happened to you won't rest until you find out what's wrong with me?" I asked.  
"Relax Nessy, I was." he said as he got up, showing me his laptop.  
"Whatever." I said. "Do you have some water I can drink, I've been thirsty since I woke up this morning." I said. Pepper went over to the fridge and tossed me a bottle. I opened it and chugged it in a matter of seconds. "You got another?" I asked. The two of them were staring at me. "What?"  
"Follow me." Tony said as he pointed his fingers behind him, towards the elevator.

We got in and he pressed the button that led to the basement.  
"Where're we going Tony, I'm tired." I said, leaning against the wall.  
"To the lab, I wanna run some tests." he said, I didn't say anything, just closed my eyes. "You feeling any better?"  
"I can walk can't I?" I joked, he didn't find it funny. "so Fury tells me you found Bruce." I tried to change the subject.  
"Yeah, he joined us when we were fighting Loki and his army."  
"Is he okay?"  
"Ask him yourself." he said as the doors opened. I saw Bruce's purple shirt from the door. He was faced away from me and I could tell he was busy at work. We walked out of the elevator and towards him. "Hey big guy!" he said, walking over to Bruce.  
"Hey, this place is amazing you got all-" Bruce stopped as he turned to look at Tony, then saw me. "Vanessa." he smiled. He got up and walked towards me, he was going in for a hug, but I just put my hands out.  
"I don't think that's a good idea." I said.  
"Why?"  
"I might burn you. I-I burnt Pepper." I explained.  
"What? How did you burn Pepper?" he asked as he looked over at Tony.  
"You didn't tell him?" I asked.  
"I don't know, I thought you might've wanted to tell him." he said.  
"What? Tell _him_ what? _He's_ right here." Bruce said.  
"I don't exactly know what's wrong!" I tried to say. "All I know is that Loki used his scepter on me, and since then everything's hot."  
"Yeah you look a little sweaty." Brue stated, and rolled my eyes.  
"Thanks. Every girl likes to be told how sweaty they are!" I said. "I just want to know what wrong with me." I said, letting out a long breath.  
"Which is why I brought you down here. I wanna take a blood test. The S.H.I.E.L.D system isn't as advanced as mine. I might be able to find out what caused this easier." Tony explained as he pulled out another syringe.  
"Fine. Just make it quick." I said, closing my eyes. I heard Tony laugh.  
"Are you _scared_?" he asked. I shot him a look but he kept laughing.  
"It's not funny."  
"You're right it's not." Bruce said, and looked at Tony. "C'mon Tony be a little more sensitive."  
"What! Fine. It's not funny. It's hilarious! I mean how many of these have you done for me? And you're _still_ scared of them." We both looked at him and he stopped laughing. "Okay, can we get serious here now guys? Really?" he said, cleaning the spot where he was going to inject me. I just rolled my eyes.  
"Okay, ready?" Bruce asked and I nodded, closing my eyes again. Tony Slowly put the needle inside me, and it felt like a pinch, then it went away. "You're almost done."  
"Tony take it out." I said quickly.  
"Vanessa just calm down." Bruce rubbed my other arm. "You're doing great."  
"No. Take it out. Take it out!" I shouted. Tony finished and pulled out the needle.  
"Nes, relax it's out." I know I was freaking out, but I had a bad experiences with needles when I was a kid. Before I knew it, my hands were on fire. "Whoa!" Tony shouted. They both jumped back.  
"Get it off of me!" I screamed, waving my hands sporadically. Bruce ran to the fire extinguisher and grabbed it.  
"Nes calm down!" Tony shouted, over me screaming. Bruce pointed the extinguisher at me and my hands were covered in gooey white foam. It was all quiet and I sat there on the chair and caught my breath.  
"What's wrong with me!" I said, still trying to catch my breath.

I went to the sink to clean off my hands and dry them off. When I examined them, to my amazement they had no burns or blisters on them. I went to find Tony, but I could only find Bruce in the lab.  
"Bruce." I said, getting his attention.  
"Are you okay?" he asked. I walked up next to him and showed him my hands. "Incredible." he said. "It doesn't even look like they were on fire." he said, looking up at me.  
"So this is what he did to me. Why would he give me fire power?" I asked.  
"I have no idea." he said. Great, another thing someone couldn't answer for me. "Don't worry though, we'll find out eventually."  
"Eventually..." I said, slumping onto the stool next to him. "Why do I feel like this is irreversible?" He didn't say anything, he just listened. "Tony keeps telling me he'll find out what's wrong, and I've been trying too, but I haven't come up with anything. And I see Tony when he thinks I'm not looking. He's stuck too. I know he won't give up, but I just don't think we'll ever really know." I said. Bruce looked down at his glasses that he was fiddling with.  
"You know, all those years ago when I first turned into the other guy, I thought I would be able to reverse it, but I couldn't." he said.  
"Is this supposed to make me feel better?" I asked, and we both laughed.  
"No, I guess not. But I learned how to control it. I found out what made me change and worked on it." he said. "What I'm trying to say is that if we don't find a cure for you, we might be able to help you control it. That way you won't catch fire at random times." I smiled at him.  
"I'm glad you're okay." I said all of a sudden. "When everything went to hell, I didn't know whether anyone would be able to find you." He put his glasses on the counter. "Are you staying?"  
"For a while, yes." and I nodded. "Tony has me in one of his guest rooms upstairs."  
"How long?"  
"As long as it takes to get you better."  
"You don't have to st-"  
"Yes I do." he interrupted. We sat there for a few minutes, talking and trying to get my mind off of what was wrong with me. He was right, if we didn't find a cure, I could always learn to control it, and hey, I might be able to use it to my advantage. He noticed me sweating again. "Are you hot again?" he asked.  
"I'm always hot." Then I realized what I just said. "I-I meant, well I _was _on fire." we laughed. I got up and walked over to the temperature control. "Do you mind?"  
"Not at all." I turned it down so that it would get colder in here, and walked back over to him.  
"I never said thank you." I said.  
"For what?"  
"For helping me. I know it's a lot and I just- I don't know." I rambled on. he just smiled.  
"Well you're welcome. But I haven't finished yet." After a while I let out a yawn. "You should go get some sleep."  
"I don't need sleep." I said, he laughed. "What?"  
"Yes you do. You probably haven't really slept for weeks." he said, and I knew he was right.  
"What about you huh? When are you going to bed?" I asked, and he just shrugged.  
"When I'm tired. I slept on the plane ride here."  
"Fine." I gave up and kissed his cheek. "Good night Bruce." I whispered. I left the lab and walked into the elevator. I let out a breath once the door closed and smiled. I was _so_ glad Bruce was all right after everything that happened.

I walked into the big living room that was just redone. I looked out at the Empire state building and saw Tony looking out of the window as well.  
"Hey." I said from behind him. He jumped and turned towards me.  
"Good god don't do that." he said annoyed.  
"Sorry." I said, walking over to him curiously. "Is everything okay?" I asked slowly. "Tony what happened out there?"  
"Nothing. We just- we won. I got rid of the missile. That's all." he said. He turned back to me and smiled. But I didn't buy it for a second. "Have you and Bruce made any luck so far?" he asked.  
"No. Not tonight. I'm all burnt out." I said as I walked over to the fridge. "Hey Tony?" I asked, he looked towards me. "You haven't told me where my room is."  
"That's because I just had it finished." Pepper said, walking into the room.  
"Thanks Pep." I said, grabbing four water bottles.  
"You need to take it easy on the water." she said as I followed her down the hall. I laughed.  
"I don't know, it's the only thing that's keeping me in check."  
"What exactly _did_ happen down there?" she asked.  
"I caught fire, that's what."  
"What? Did Tony use the flame thrower on you or something?"  
"No!" I laughed. _"_No my hands caught fire. I-I don't exactly know what it was, it all happened so fast." I whispered that last part. Pepper opened the door for me.  
"Hey, you'll be fine. We're all here to help you through it." she told me and I smiled.  
"Thanks." With that she hugged me.  
"Huh, the water does cool you down." she laughed. I laughed and we said good night and I headed to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

I've been at the tower for a week. One long _exhausting_ week of non-stop blood tests, drinking water and catching on fire. At first it was just my hands, but then there was in incident in my room while I was sleeping, and my whole body caught fire. I burnt my clothes, and my entire bed, so Tony moved me to a new room. I got up and made my way to the kitchen and grabbed myself a bowl of cereal before heading down to the lab. I don't think I've seen Bruce ever leave that place. Every time I look over at him I see him trying to find out how to reverse whatever Loki did to me. Tony has been too, but not as much. I can't blame him, with all the flying back and forth between Malibu and New York, I'm surprised he's got enough energy to stay awake. I get to the lab and sat down across from Bruce at the table, where he was busy looking at his computer. I started to munch on my cereal, the only thing you could hear in the room was the sound of it crunching in my mouth. He looked up from his computer and I smiled at him.

"So, how's it going?" I asked.  
"Slow." He said, I sighed. "What?"  
"Nothing. Just... Have you taken a break lately?" I asked.  
"I got a few hours of sleep a while ago." he said, looking back at the computer.  
"What time was that?"  
"Around eleven."  
"Bruce it's eight o'clock." I said, taking another bite. "I think you should take a break."  
"And do what?" He asked, taking off his glasses.  
"What do you usually do when you've been working for hours on end?"  
"I work some more."  
"Is that _all_ you ever do?" I asked, taking another bite, he laughed.  
"Well if I stop then it'll just take longer to find out what Loki did to you."  
"We all ready know what he did." I said holding my hand up, it caught fire. And as soon as it caught fire it went out.  
"You've been practicing?" He smiled.  
"I've hardly got any control over it, but it's better than nothing." I said looking back down at my bowl. "I wish there was a way for us to talk to him. That way I'd know the whole story."  
"That'll be kind of hard, seeing as he's in Asgard." We both laughed.  
"Yeah well, I highly doubt he'd speak a word to me anyway." I said, then it was silent in the room for a bit longer. I was staring at my bowl of slightly soggy cereal bits.  
"What should we d then" He asked, I looked up at him confused.  
"What do you mean?"  
"For our break." I looked at him for a moment before smiling.  
"I have an idea."

I decided to take him to Central park, for a walk. He needed to get out of that lab, I swear if he stayed in there any longer he might've died. We got lunch and an Italian place near the park and we walked around the park talking.  
"So you helped Tony with the suit?" he asked.  
"Yeah, you should've seen the original design. It was horrid. Me and Pepper thought it was a bad idea all together, Pepper more than me. After I looked into what he was doing, I realized that it could work, and that it was brilliant. And I noticed how different he'd been acting after his accident in the desert. It was like he was a completely different man when he came back." I said.  
"Other than the egotistical maniac he was?"  
"Oh no, he's still an egotistical manic, he's just slimmed down on it a bit. Still gets under my skin."  
"Good god, I would not be able to work for Stark back then."  
"No." I laughed. "You'd probably lose it, get all angry and toss his ass out a window or something." He laughed. "There were a few times where I was on the verge of quitting."  
"Really?"  
"Yes. He treated me so bad, I felt like slapping some sense into him, but I needed the job, and I was good, and I knew that without me he'd go tumbling into the ground." I said smugly. "And hey, twelve years later and here I am." We stopped under a bridge and looked at each other for a moment.  
"If you could go back, would you've changed anything?" He asked.  
"You mean would I choose this life?" I asked, and he nodded. "No, I wouldn't change anything."  
"Not even what happened with Loki?" He asked.  
"I don't know, maybe." I said as we continued to walk. We made our way back to the tower and went into the lab. We both got back to work, searching for what'd happened.

The rest of the day was quiet, and before I knew it, Tony and Pepper came back and it was time for me to head to bed. I bumped into Tony on my way there.  
"Hey Nes." He said as I was passing him.  
"Hey. Where're you off to?" I asked, as he was heading in the opposite direction of his room.  
"You know, work, busy." he said. I scoffed. There was no way in hell that Tony would work at this time of night unless there was something bothering him. He always would walk around the lab until it was dinner time or any time to get out. "I'm heading back for Malibu in a few days. I want you to come with me and Pep."  
"Why?" I asked.  
"Pepper thinks that you'd be safer at the mansion. Her words not mine."He said, and then rubbed his face. "And... I think she has a point. I just don't think it would be a good idea to stay in an apartment you can burn down, y'know, with other living breathing people in the same building."  
"Wow I'm so glad you have such faith in me." I said sarcastically. "But fine, I guess I could stay at the mansion until this all blows over." I said. "Is Bruce coming?" I asked curiously.  
"I don't know, I asked him but he hasn't said anything. I think he misses his third world country or something." he said, rubbing at his face again. I sat there and stared at him. "What?"  
"When was the last time you got a good night sleep?" I asked.  
"What are you my mother now?" he asked. I crossed my arms. "Just jet lag."  
"Yeah I'm sure it is." I said, totally not believing him. "I'm going to bed." I said after a yawn.  
"Night Nessy."


End file.
